


Desert Nights

by maybe_maye



Category: GLOW (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:27:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25837237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maybe_maye/pseuds/maybe_maye
Summary: A look at what might have happened if Sam had tagged along on the girls camping trip.
Relationships: Sam Sylvia/Ruth Wilder
Comments: 2
Kudos: 32





	Desert Nights

**Author's Note:**

> I've been sitting on this for a year (almost exactly) and I'm not actively writing GLOW fanfic, I just wanted to finally publish this and stop feeling guilty about it. I expect absolutely no one to read it lol. 
> 
> So for some reason Sam came with them on the camping trip, Justine too! That's all you need to know!

The desert stretches out into the night, cool and silent. For once the distant murmurs and blinking lights of the strip are absent. Only the crackle of the campfire remains, the bright flames flickering and lighting up the campsite. 

Ruth shivers, her coat still thrown around the shoulders of Sheila who she left dozing in their tent. The heat of the day had already been leached from the sand and stone, leaving her with only a thin t-shirt to fend off the chill. 

She can’t sleep. Too many thoughts are swirling around her head and the inability to know what to do has seized her like a vice. She tries to distract herself, falling back on her old game of character building. 

For a moment, she is not Ruth Wilder, washed up actress and wrestling showgirl. For a moment, a different woman looks out at the desert, perched on a rock a safe distance from the cliffs edge. 

She imagines she’s a bereft woman, striking out west to find gold or a future or… perhaps it’s not so different from her own life. Ruth had gone west, to LA. To find a future, a job, to make money doing anything that was acting. 

The threat of her personal anxieties looms over her once again. 

Ruth refocuses, wrapping her arms around herself tightly and endeavors to lose herself in the fantasy, in her character. She thinks back to her acting workshops and asks herself what she needs to know to understand this character, this woman she’s making up. Who would she be, what does she want, where will she go?

Her musings successfully distract her this time and she doesn’t hear the soft approach of footsteps, unaware she’s not alone until a familiar leather jacket suddenly settles around her shoulders. 

“Let me guess, imagining some epic backstory.” Sam hazards, dropping down beside her with a soft sigh as he settles in.

“You almost gave me a heart attack!” 

“Well I didn’t, you’re young. You’ll be fine.” He grumbles, pulling out a cigarette. “Me on the other hand...” He flicks open the lighter and sneers at her. “So was I right, you were dreaming up some role?”

“Shut up.” 

Sam shrugs in lieu of a response, joining her in silent contemplation. The smoke of his cigarette lingers between them and she wrinkles her nose up, turning away slightly. 

Any fantasies of pioneer women have been dashed and one of the things she was trying very hard not to think about was making himself a little hard to ignore. She beats out a steady tempo against the rock, her tapping fingers giving away her trepidation as she mentally weighs the pros and cons.

Sam waits for her to speak. Minutes pass like this, he stamps out his cigarette. Contemplates lighting another one or giving in and heading back to his tent.

Ruth peers at him through the corner of her eye, heart beating fast. She hears Debbie ask her how she feels, she hears herself answer.

Scared. Excited.

Several paths branch out in front of her and she pretends she’s not herself again, that this time she's a writer, deciding what road the character of Ruth Wilder will take. 

Who would she be? An actor or a wrestler?

What does she want? A job or a boyfriend?

Where will she go? Las Vegas or LA? 

Maybe none of that. Something new, somewhere new, someone new. Director, a collaborator, New York? 

Possibilities stretch before her and Ruth wonders why they once seemed so far away or why she never looked at them before. Each path has its own struggles, none of them are perfect. 

She had avoided even thinking about the existence of some choices because she’s scared of what it means to take it, of what she could lose or gain. 

But continuing down her current path hasn’t made her happy either. 

Debbie told her she was holding back from something she wanted. Would anything she did feel right, if she wasn’t honest? 

Sam told her to be honest, about Justine's screenplay. But sitting side by side, staring out at the desert, she thinks he might have meant something else too. 

“I think I’m in love with you.” She blurts out, hands covering her mouth a moment later when it catches up to her. Sam is frozen beside her, face unreadable in the dark. 

“No, I do love you.” She declares, unable to look at him. “And I love acting and GLOW but maybe I don’t want them forever, maybe I want something else. I don’t… love Russell. I thought I wanted stability but ..”

“Ruth fucking Christ. One thing at a time.” Sam cuts in. “You love me?”

“Yes.” She breathes, feeling the weight of the admission leave her .

“Since when?” 

“Since.. Since. Well I can’t say always but I don’t know. When I was lost, like today with Debbie, not metaphorically, oh god, I just realized that, well it hit me and then just now, I was thinking and suddenly, I had to tell you.”

“Fuck Ruth, you’re a fucking nightmare.” He’s laughing, breathless too. A hand on her shoulder turns her to face him. The distant campfire casts half his face in shadow but he’s grinning. Sam grips her upper arms, thumbs burning warm paths against her cool skin as they stroke and she shivers in his hold . 

He’s euphoric, eyes shining and mustache curving with the force of his smile. She's struck by how young he looks, how boyish he can be. How lovesick he is. Lost in his gaze, Ruth trails her fingers down his cheek and his eyes flutter shut. He shudders out a sigh and she feels a thrill race through her.

“Come here.”

And he’s kissing her, surging forward and capturing her mouth in a brutal kiss. His mustache tickles her and she laughs into his mouth, deepening the kiss. 

She runs her hands up his chest, the borrowed jacket falling from her shoulders as she clutches him tightly. 

The broad span of his hands up her back sends sparks and they can’t seem to get enough of each other. 

He pulls away first, breathless and giggling.

“Fuck Ruth. I don’t know what to do with you.” Sam admits, stealing another kiss as she laughs with him.

“I can think of a few things.”

“Jesus fucking Christ.” He pulls back further, holding her away for a moment. “You can’t say things like that, not here, not now.”

“Nobody’s awake!” 

“That’s not what I mean. Oh gosh.” He fumbles when she presses a kiss into his neck, hands slipping under his shirt. “Ruth! Justine is over there and the other girls and - fuck.” He curses before pulling her into his lap in one quick motion. 

His hands wander to her ass and she grinds down into his lap, panting into his open mouth. Sam groans when she slips a hand beneath them and starts to unbuckle his pants. 

They freeze when the faint sound of a tent zipper reaches their ears and wait with bated breath as one of the girls stumbles out and pads over to the edge of the trees. 

The sound of peeing makes Ruth giggle into her fist, burying her head into Sam's neck where she can feel his own silent chuckles.

“We got a little distracted there, I think you had more you wanted to say.” Sam ventures when the tent is zipped closed again and a few minutes have passed. Ruth sits up and he tucks an errant curl of hair behind her ear, face impossibly tender again. 

“Well I wanted, um all this.” She gestures between them, suddenly shy. 

“I don’t know Sam, I was so sure what I wanted. I thought I wanted stability, safety. Russell, this job, all of it. But I think that it might not be what I need, or even what I want.” Ruth admits, wringing her hands. 

“I miss how we used to talk every day about ideas for the show. I miss coming up with concepts for shots, I think, I think I don’t want to be an actress, or only an actress. Maybe direct?” She questions, searching Sam's face for answers. “Or something like a producer. I don’t know, I just don’t know who I am anymore. I feel stagnant.”

“Fucking tell me about it, my daughter is more talented then I could ever dream of. My screenplay is shit. And all I do is sit around at a casino.” Sam scoffs, “Don’t expect me to tell you what to do. I can’t and you wouldn’t listen anyway. “ He grins and nudges her until she cracks a small smile. 

He wraps an arm around her and she leans into his side. They’re quiet as the sun begins to peak over the horizon.

“Look, Justine and I are going to shop her screenplay. I’ve got a couple favors I’m calling in. Maybe, maybe you could be a part of that. Help us make her movie.” Ruth tenses in his arms and turns to face him.

“Really? You’d let me help you guys, we could work together?” 

“I mean, I’d have to ask Justine, but she loves you, I’m sure she’d want you to be part of the team.”

“Okay.” Ruth beams and snuggles in closer to his side. “Okay then.” Sam smiles down at the top of her head and together they watch the sun rise on a new day. 

**Author's Note:**

> I did not edit this from last year and like always have no beta, this is just for fun and to just finally share it. Hence the abrupt ending! Either way hope you guys enjoyed it and I'm still hoping we get to see season 4 sometime in the next year...


End file.
